1. Biochemistry

Category Archives: Biochemistry

New discovery may allow scientists to make fuel from CO2 in the atmosphere

Posted on by

Michael Adams is a member of UGA's Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and distinguished research professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

(Phys.org) Excess carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change, and researchers the world over are looking for new ways to generate power that leaves a smaller carbon footprint.

Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have found a way to transform the carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere into useful industrial products. Their discovery may soon lead to the creation of biofuels made directly from the carbon dioxide in the air that is responsible for trapping the sun's rays and raising global temperatures.

"Basically, what we have done is create a microorganism that does with carbon dioxide exactly what plants doabsorb it and generate something useful," said Michael Adams, member of UGA's Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and Distinguished Research Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

During the process of photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to transform water and carbon dioxide into sugars that the plants use for energy, much like humans burn calories from food.

These sugars can be fermented into fuels like ethanol, but it has proven extraordinarily difficult to efficiently extract the sugars, which are locked away inside the plant's complex cell walls.

"What this discovery means is that we can remove plants as the middleman," said Adams, who is co-author of the study detailing their results published March 25 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. "We can take carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and turn it into useful products like fuels and chemicals without having to go through the inefficient process of growing plants and extracting sugars from biomass."

The process is made possible by a unique microorganism called Pyrococcus furiosus, or "rushing fireball," which thrives by feeding on carbohydrates in the super-heated ocean waters near geothermal vents. By manipulating the organism's genetic material, Adams and his colleagues created a kind of P. furiosus that is capable of feeding at much lower temperatures on carbon dioxide.

The research team then used hydrogen gas to create a chemical reaction in the microorganism that incorporates carbon dioxide into 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a common industrial chemical used to make acrylics and many other products.

With other genetic manipulations of this new strain of P. furiosus, Adams and his colleagues could create a version that generates a host of other useful industrial products, including fuel, from carbon dioxide.

Go here to see the original:
New discovery may allow scientists to make fuel from CO2 in the atmosphere

Gators could hold cure to human ailments

Posted on by

You could say Mark Merchant has alligators in his blood.

Before he was a biochemistry professor at McNeese State University studying the antibiotic properties of alligator blood, Merchant was just another Southeast Texas kid fishing with his grandpa on the bayous.

The Nederland man remembers once seeing a huge old alligator that had lost a leg at some point but had healed and gone on to thrive in the bacteria-rich swampland

But if Merchant so much as scratched his arm in that water, he knew it was likely to get infected.

That told Merchant there was something special about alligators.

He tucked it away in his mind, where it later spawned the idea of using gators to create drugs that would combat infections, particularly those that have become resistant to antibiotics.

More than a decade ago, Merchant began studying the immune systems of alligators and crocodiles.

But his relationship to alligators goes beyond the scientific.

Take Murphy, the 10-foot alligator who lives in a pond inside a fenced enclosure at the McNeese research station where he keeps his specimens.

Murphy, named for Merchant's favorite beer, lurks in a hollowed-out space beneath the bank of his pool, no sign of him visible until Merchant nudges him with a stick to get his attention. Then the alligator's massive head glides into view and his jaws open in a threatening display of jagged teeth.

Continue reading here:
Gators could hold cure to human ailments

UNG biochemistry research team headed to DC

Posted on by

DAHLONEGA - Squid can change their skin color rapidly due to protein materials known as reflectins. Can that same material be used to help people?

Dr. Holly Carpenter Desai and Patrick Pickens of the University of North Georgia (UNG) will be heading to Washington, D.C., in April to present scientific research demonstrating how a hybrid material constructed partially from reflectins may be able to help people in several ways.

Representing the school's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the pair presented their abstract among some 800 other applicants in their competition. Of those 800, 60 were selected, including the abstract submitted by Desai and Pickens, to be presented during Posters on the Hillan annual event held by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) that enables students from around the country to present posters on their research.

"Dr. Desai and Patrick Pickens have been selected from a large pool of submissions across multiple academic disciplines to make a contribution to a very select group of individualsthe United States Congress," said Dr. Michael Bodri, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at UNG. "Their efforts will help members of Congress to understand the importance of undergraduate research and the impact it can have on education and scholarship. I congratulate them on their work and on representing the University of North Georgia."

Desai, associate professor of chemistry, has toiled for several years on her research in protein engineering. The research involves the study of reflectins, protein materials found naturally in the skin of squid that have many unique spectral and optical properties. The possible applications of the research range from constructing materials for skin implants, to drug-delivery matrices, to inspiring new liquid-crystal display technologies.

"This is an incredible opportunity for myself and Patrick," Desai said. "This will give us the ability to publicize what we've already done, and the poster presentation will be a springboard for future grants and applications to extend our research. These grants can be crucial to the research process; the Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded my research for three years."

Pickens, president of the Student Government Association on UNG's Dahlonega campus and a senior majoring in chemistry and biology, began engaging in undergraduate research with Desai in January 2011. As part of the university's Faculty-Undergraduate Summer Engagement (FUSE) program, Pickens also journeyed with Desai last summer to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego for an eight-week intensive study of the research.

"We are very excited about this opportunity," Pickens said. "We'll be stepping out of the realm of normal science and going into an environment where people are involved in national funding. We'll also be presenting to members of Congress who may not know much about our field, and I'll have the chance to share how undergraduate research has impacted my life and future career."

CUR's mission is to increase the number of undergraduates who engage in research across the nation. Pickens, who is interested in pursuing possible chemistry applications in public health, said his experience as an undergraduate researcher has contributed greatly to his development.

The event will be held on Capitol Hill, in the Capitol Building, from April 22-24.

See the article here:
UNG biochemistry research team headed to DC

UA mourns loss of chemist who died in Colorado – WXVT-TV Delta News – More Local News and Weather WXVT.com |

Posted on by

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) - The University of Arkansas says the Fayetteville man who died this week while skiing in northern Colorado was a renowned professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Robert Gawley, who went by Bob, was skiing with friends in the Steamboat ski area when he collapsed and later died. Authorities believe Gawley may have suffered a heart attack.

Gawley served as an educator and researcher for more than 35 years and as chairman of UA's chemistry and biochemistry department.

University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt says Gawley was an exceptional chemist with a skill for helping others excel.

Gawley joined UA in 2003 as a tenured professor. Before that, he served on the faculty at Miami University.

He is survived by a wife and two sons. Funeral services are pending.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read the original:
UA mourns loss of chemist who died in Colorado - WXVT-TV Delta News - More Local News and Weather WXVT.com |

Blind flies without recycling

Posted on by

Public release date: 18-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Bernhard Hovemann Bernhard.Hovemann@rub.de 49-234-322-4235 Ruhr-University Bochum

Bochum, 18.3.2013

In the fruit fly Drosophila, the functions of the three enzymes Tan, Ebony and Black are closely intertwined - among other things they are involved in neurotransmitter recycling for the visual process. RUB researchers from the Department of Biochemistry showed for the first time that flies cannot see without this recycling. Their analysis of the enzyme Black also raises new questions as to its function. Anna Ziegler, Florian Brsselbach and Bernhard Hovemann report in the Journal of Comparative Neurology", which chose this topic as cover story.

Tan, Ebony and Black are important for the visual process and the formation of the cuticle

The fruit fly's genes tan, ebony and black contain the construction plans for three enzymes with the same names that work together in hardening the outer shell of the body, the cuticle. The same enzymes also occur in the compound eye of the fly. Researchers therefore assume that Tan, Ebony and Black work together in vision - similar to the way they do in the formation of the cuticle. In fact, flies with mutations of the ebony and tan genes cannot see. A mutation of the black gene, however, has no such effect. Prof. Hovemann's team examined where the enzyme Black appears in the compound eye and the role it plays in vision.

Black and Ebony always occur together

First, the scientists tested where the genes ebony and black are active in the compound eye of the fruit fly and in its extra eyes on the head, the ocelli. They put different types of light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors, under the microscope. The result: both genes are always read together - just like in the cuticle. This suggests that the functions of the enzymes Ebony and Black are closely linked.

Vision requires a continuous flow of the neurotransmitter histamine

When light falls into the compound eye, the photoreceptors release the neurotransmitter histamine. In previous studies, Bochum's biochemists already demonstrated that histamine is recycled via the glial cells surrounding the photoreceptors. There, the enzyme Ebony inactivates the neurotransmitter histamine by binding it to the amino acid -alanine, thus creating -alanyl-histamine. This molecule is transported from the glial cells back into the photoreceptors. Here, -alanine is split off again by the enzyme Tan, and histamine is produced. Previously, it was assumed that the enzyme Black is responsible for producing the -alanine, which is required for the inactivation of histamine. However, if a fly's eye has no functional Black, the visual process still runs normally. Hovemann's team therefore looked into the question of whether there is another supply route for -alanine. They also tested whether the fly eye can get around the recycling of histamine; this would be possible if the photoreceptors could directly reabsorb the released neurotransmitter, without it being inactivated in the glial cells.

Read more:
Blind flies without recycling

Discover Chemistry

Posted on by


Discover Chemistry Biochemistry at USciences
The chemical sciences touch virtually every aspect of the natural world Over the course of four years students in the Department of Chemistry Biochemistry at usciences are exposed to all five major areas of chemistry analytical biochemical inorganic organic and physical and receive additional education in mathematics physics and computer science fully readying you for a diverse future With expertise distributed over all five of chemistry #39;s primary areas the faculty engage in diverse awardwinning ...

By: usciences

View original post here:
Discover Chemistry


  1. Biochemistry